HubSpot v. Salesforce

It’s becoming downright impossible to survive as a business in 2022 without a software tool to deliver the data we need to make decisions—never mind a tool that helps keep everything organized without a zillion logins to different software tools for every little thing. 

HubSpot and Salesforce are truly the top two cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms out there, and, let’s face it, we all need one or the other. 

If you don’t have a CRM, listen up! If you have Salesforce, listen up. We’ve got words for both of you that can help you make a big change that could lead to a massive turnaround for your business. 

The Basic Difference: Their Foundation

Both Salesforce and HubSpot provide big benefits to sales teams—even massive ones—with solutions that can grow your business and grow WITH your business. 

However, the difference (in value AND price) between the two CRMs comes into focus when you consider three specific things that originate from how they were built: 

• how easy or difficult they are to use 
• whether they integrate well with other software, and 
• how quickly their customer service responds to your needs. 

All of which cost or save you money. 

HubSpot was built from the ground up and out with the same code and framework which created a seamless product that inspires confidence in its users. That’s how HubSpot can provide max level customer support for free: its sturdy, organic, intuitive design that’s easily learned and adopted by millions of users. 

Salesforce, however, was developed through the acquisition of other smaller software companies that were consumed into the product they have now. 

This patchwork way of creating a CRM makes the user experience disjointed, clunky, and harder to understand which contributes to the difficulty in getting teams to adopt and use it—and adds to the cost of support.  

Think about it this way: 

• If you buy something for your team to use, and they don’t use it because it’s too difficult, is it cheaper? 
• Is it a safer purchase if you have to hire multiple new employees to maintain and update it for you? 
• Is it a better product if you have a hard time getting access to customer support when you need it?

Yeah, no. 

Overall, Salesforce is more expensive than HubSpot.

And for what? It’s not the better product (which we’ll get into).

Speaking of Pricing

Both CRMs have a three-tiered subscription system, but the big difference is that HubSpot gives you all the tools you need at the tier you pick (and their prices are lower overall), while Salesforce charges per user and for add-ons that are essential for the whole thing to work. 

Here’s the breakdown of the common expenses for Sales Enterprise (teams of 50+) for both CRMs. 

Now, let’s talk about the product itself. 

Flywheel v. Pipeline: Customer Experience

The buyer’s journey is complex, and the customer experience should gather momentum for your business (HubSpot calls it a flywheel, and Salesforce still calls it a pipeline). To grow, marketing, sales, AND customer service teams need to create the exemplary experience that buyers demand and deserve: Revenue Operations (RevOps). 

These teams are tasked with driving revenue for the entire organization, and here’s the five core ways that they need to use technology (i.e. a great CRM and CMS) to ensure their success: 

1. Data 
2. Reports
3. Content
4. Messaging
5. Automation

Agreed?

Given that big thought, compare this info for yourself: 

So, not only is HubSpot a (much!) better price, it’s a (much!) better product overall. 

Creating a flywheel that grows your business is wholly dependent on a great CRM that spins your sales, marketing, and customer experience to generate true frictionless momentum.

HubSpot does that for Growth and for our clients. Want to get on board? Let’s talk about how HubSpot can make a big difference for your specific business.